Readers who visit this site may recall reading Personal Blog #13, “Dementia Patients in Hospital Emergency Departments,” posted on 1/18/20. In that blog I wrote about how patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or some other form of dementia are often treated poorly in hospital emergency departments (EDs).
Quoting from that blog, I discussed how I had read about “the
American Geriatrics Society’s formation of the Geriatrics Emergency Department
Collaborative (GEDC), a consortium of some of our country’s leading health
systems and medical societies, to help improve emergency care for our nation’s
older adults.” The GEDC consortium submitted
a grant proposal to NIA/NIH in late January of this year. Their Geriatric Emergency
care Applied Research (GEAR 2.0) grant called for establishing a Task Force to
suggest ways to improve care for AD/dementia patients in hospital EDs
I was honored when the GERD consortium asked me to serve
as their only non-medical Task Force member … as their “expert in
patient-centered dementia care in times of emergency.” If this grant were funded, as a former AD
spouse caregiver I would be able to provide a voice for AD/dementia caregivers
and their loved ones, able to describe firsthand what it is like for AD/dementia
patients and caregivers in hospital EDs.
In that same blog, I also requested readers to email me and
share their own hospital emergency department experiences with their loved ones. I said that I would like to include their
comments and suggestions in my recommendations to the Task Force should the
grant be funded. Several caregivers did
email me, and I am thankful for all of comments received.
Now I can
update readers on this GEDC grant proposal.
Quoting from an email received earlier this week from one of the project
coordinators … “The Geriatric Emergency care Applied Research network 2.0 –
Advancing Dementia Care (GEAR 2.0 – ADC) is funded!!! We received the
notice of award from the National Institute on Aging today.” Continuing to quote from that email, “During
the first phase of the grant period (R61), we will establish a stakeholder
engagement approach to determine research priorities for ED patients with
dementia (PwD) and caregivers using a consensus process in four domains: 1. ED
practices 2. ED care transitions 3. Detection, and 4. Communication and decision
making. We will also establish infrastructure and collaborations that
include the GEDC, ADRCs, and GEAR 2.0 Cores: 1. Administrative; 2. Research; 3.
Data/Informatics; and 4. Dissemination & Implementation.
The
second phase of the grant period (R33) will solicit, review, select and fund
research that will lead to future full-scale proposals addressing research gaps
in emergency care for PwD and their caregivers identified during the first
phase. This will create a platform from which GEAR 2.0 ADC and future
investigators will generate preliminary data for large-scale funding
opportunities, including multicenter project proposals. This “priming” of the
research pipeline will promote further transdisciplinary studies and science
and lay the groundwork for a sustainable research network infrastructure to
support development of an evidence base to optimize the emergency care of
persons with dementia.”
This is a very important first step in a new national
effort to improve care for people with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia in
hospital Emergency Departments. Improved
care for people with AD/dementia will also greatly relieve some of the stress
and anxiety faced by caregivers, who often have to watch their loved ones receiving
suboptimal care by many ED medical professionals who lack either the understanding
and/or training to be able to communicate, diagnose and treat AD/dementia
patients effectively. Hopefully,
research emerging from this grant proposal will lead to improved practices to enable
more doctors to provide optimal care going forward.
I had another article about this same topic, care for
those with AD/dementia in hospital EDs, published and posted on this site just
a few months ago ... “When to Choose the Infant Approach,” which appeared in Emergency
Physicians Monthly in June. With
increasing numbers of people being diagnosed with AD and other forms of
dementia, hospital ED visits will continue to increase. Medical personnel working in hospital
Emergency Departments simply must learn how to communicate with, diagnose, and treat
patients with AD/dementia more effectively.
As this Task Force’s lone AD/dementia patient advocate, I
will now be able to provide a caregiver’s perspective on these important
issues. But I am again asking for your
help.
If any current or former AD/dementia caregivers want to
offer their recommendations, or simply want to share their hospital experiences
with their loved ones, please email me at acvann@optonline.net. Thank you.
